Samstag, 25. Juni 2016

Brexit: The Beginning of the End of the EU?

A little rift within the lute of the EU?

The morning after the leave decision in the United Kingdom, the non-elected functionaries of the European Union are dismayed and panic-stricken. The people of Great Britain have spoken and David Cameron, the Prime Minister, is going to resign in the fall. His successor has to negotiate the modalities of the exit. Jean-Claude Juncker, the President of the European Commission, has read out a statement shakily. Juncker seems ailing and he is untrustworthy. "Once it becomes serious, you have to lie", seems to be his motto. When he was the head of Luxembourg and also its Finance Minister, he has run the tiny country like a fiefdom. He represents the "dark part" of Europe and stands for its demise.

Having followed and watched the massive remain propaganda for the last two weeks, I can understand that the stay in-supporter are disappointed that all the demonization of the Brexiteers was in vain. That the financial class and the stock markets around the world are disappointed and try to sanction Great Britain is understandable, but after a couple of weeks, they will return to business as usual because they want to make money. Apparently, five billion US Dollars were burned, so what. For the big shots and the stock jobbers, these are peanuts. The City of London is too important for the financial elite than that they would leave London. The Brits have to keep calm because the international community needs Britain more than the other way around. The corporatist EU that Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande represent is a dinosaur and should be rebuilt.

Since Friday, the European Union is in crisis mode and indulge in incantations such as "Europe must stand together". Just on this "Dark Friday", the German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, invited his colleagues from France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, the six founding members of the European Economic Community (EEC,) in order to present a paper calling for a "flexible Union". The timing could not have been worse. The remaining 21 members were not invited. "Standing together" looks different.

Angela Merkel's "open border policy" has tipped the scale in favor of Brexit. Last summer, when Merkel invited millions of refugees to Europe and Germany, the Brits were shocked. They considered this policy as irresponsible. With such a policy, Merkel did not only destabilized the EU but also led Germany into isolation. When the Eastern European countries closed their borders, Merkel criticized them massively. According to her, the following decline in the number of refugees was due to her policy and not to the border closures!

On top of that, Merkel's austerity policy caused economic decline all across Southern Europe, especially in Greece. The country is bankrupt and can only survive with the financial help of the Troika (=the IMF, the ECB, and the European Commission EC). A sovereign Greece doesn't exist any longer. It's run by the Troika. After the Eastern European states closed the so-called Balkan route, the refugees from Turkey are stuck in Greece. Greece is in every respect in dire straits. Some analysts call the Greeks "the Palestinians of the EU".

The Brexit is going to have enormous repercussions all over Europe. It will encourage the populist movements across Europe. The political elites don't see the writing on the wall, they call for even more and deeper integration, knowing that the EU is already unable to act in many political fields such as the refugee crisis in which the EU cannot distribute apparently 160 000 refugees from Greece and Italy to the 27 member states, so far 1 000 have been allocated. Beyond that, the Euro currency has not fostered unity but has proven as a spirit of discord. In the field of foreign policy, the EU acts as an annex of the U. S. Empire. Since the attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq, they have caused havoc, not to speak of Libya and Syria. The last achievement was the U. S.-led putsch in Ukraine and the expansion of Nato to the border of Russia hat triggered a new cold war.

To the widespread frustration and disillusionment among the citizens of Europe, the corporate media have to be blamed. Many of them have not supervised the policy of the EU critically but rather affirmatively. They behaved like cheerleaders rather watch dogs, especially in the refugee crisis and the permanent crisis of the euro. A large section of the population who are critical of the current EU or domestic policy are called populists that equal a cuss word. The editor-in-chief of Spiegel online, Florian Harms, instead of calling for a pause after the Brexit he called for more integration; " Now the EU must coalesce a fortiori."

Instead of accelerating further integration, the member states should reclaim more sovereignty from Brussels. The EU nomenclature is out of touch with the real world. They do not serve the interest of the peoples but rather corporate interests such as the TTIP negotiations show that are held in camera. If the EU doesn't change track, it will fall apart.